


I’ve come to give you your stupid back

by jensencanfricklemyfrackle



Series: Long oneshots (mix) [6]
Category: Marvel
Genre: 5 Stages of Grief, Angst, Army!Bucky, Bucky sent on a mission, Fluff, Freeform, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Stucky - Freeform, Stucky married, florist!steve, keeps both arms, lot of angst, married, missing for 5 months, modern 1940's storyline, no powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 21:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14756723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jensencanfricklemyfrackle/pseuds/jensencanfricklemyfrackle
Summary: Florist Steve Rogers (no serum ) is married to childhood friend and love, James Buchanan Barnes, or Bucky, who leads a specialist group that Steve is not allowed to know the reason of that group, so what will happen to Steve when Bucky, after being sent of on a mission, never comes back, and is reported at MIA?





	I’ve come to give you your stupid back

Steve was standing behind the counter of his flower shop that he owned and ran, filling out a stack of paperwork (orders for a huge delivery of flowers suitable for a wedding for someone called Mr. Stark in three weeks) when two strong arms crept around his waist and a chin dropped onto his shoulder, making him jump in surprise but quickly relaxes when he feels the familiar heat from a familiar body pressed to his back, and a familiar chuckle rumbling through said body and into his ear.

“Did I scare ya, Stevie-Doll?”

“No” Steve huffs, setting down his pen and leaning back against the warm body, who pulls him even closer now that he’s got Steve’s attention. “You did not scare me, ‘Bucky Bear’”

Bucky chuckles at the obvious sarcasm lacing the nickname, and Steve wriggles around in his grasp till he is facing Bucky, the smile dropping from his face as he sees the fitted Army uniform that Bucky was wearing and the Army cap that was positioned jauntily on his head. The grin on Bucky’s face dropped too, forming into a regretful, almost pained smile.

“Steve, I – “

“You got deployed” Steve says in defeat, gently pulling Bucky’s left hand from around his waist and lacing the fingers of his own left fingers with Bucky’s, the matching wedding bands gleaming in the light. Bucky and Steve had been best friends since childhood and started to date when they were fifteen and realized that they were both gay, including the fact that they both had feelings for each other. Bucky had promised a year later that he would marry Steve, to love him till the end of the line. Steve hadn’t believed him, not at first, and here they are now, married with a shop to call their own, Steve doing something he loved doing with someone he loved.

Bucky let out a soft sigh and cupped Steve’s jaw with his right hand, squeezing Steve’s left hand gently.

“Yeah, I did”

“When?”

“Tomorrow, to an unknown location that you aren’t allowed to know”

Steve let out another soft sigh and stepped forward, pulling his hand from Bucky’s and wrapping both arms around his waist, burying his face in Bucky’s chest. Bucky wrapped his own arms around Steve, almost cradling him as he rocked him back and forth, silent tears running down Steve’s face and onto Bucky’s uniform.

After getting married three years ago, Bucky had joined the Army, and after the basic recruit training, he had taken all the courses he could, catapulting him high up the command chain and after a year had managed to take charge of a small specialist team that specified in sneaking in behind enemy lines and taking down rebel bands and such that were working against the U.S.A. Bucky and his team had only been needed three time in the last two years, and now it would seem that his skillset was needed for a fourth time.

“It’ll be alright, Stevie, I’ll be okay” Bucky murmured as he leant down and pressed a kiss to the top of Steve’s blond head. “It’ll only be a week, I’ll be back the Monday after next.” Today was Saturday.

“Promise you’ll come back?” Steve hated the waver he heard in his voice, but this was always a constant fear, that Bucky would leave and not come back.

“I always do, don’t I?” Bucky tries to chuckle, but Steve slaps him on the arm, wanting a proper answer to his question. “I promise I’ll come back. I always will no matter what”

 

……………………………..

 

The next morning, Bucky was pressing his lips to Steve’s in a deep and emotional kiss as they stood on the pavement just outside their flower shop, seeing as their apartment was right above the shop. There was an Army jeep idling on the road right behind them, a familiar red head at the wheel.

“You be safe, you hear me?” Steve said forcefully, hand clamped onto Bucky’s, and Bucky nodded, smiling fondly.

“I will. And you don’t go do something stupid while I’m gone, okay?”

Steve scoffed, using the heel of his palm to wipe away a stray tear from his cheek, one that Bucky kindly didn’t comment on. “How can I, when you’re taking all the stupid with you?”

 

……………………………….

 

It’s been a week since Bucky left, and it was a Sunday. Steve was excited as he bustled around the front of the shop, muttering “Bucky’s coming home tomorrow” under his breath as he removed dying flowers and replacing them with fresh ones he had received early that morning.

He had just finished organizing a bucket of sunflowers when he heard the sound of a vehicle coming up the street, a loud sound that sounded like a jeep. Steve’s heard jerked up and he rushed outside just in time to see a familiar jeep park in front of him on his side of the road, the familiar red head that had driven Bucky away that day a week ago who was also driving the jeep now.

“Hey, Nat!” Steve called out, eyes gleaming with excitement as he tries to see through the blacked out back windows of the jeep, but they were blacked out for a reason, and Steve faltered when he saw the grim look on Natasha’s face. Natasha was an old Army friend of Bucky’s, a recruit trainer who had trained him and struck up a close bond, and so, by extension, Natasha became Steve’s friend since Bucky would invite her over to have drinks and go out to bars with him and Steve.

“Natasha?” Steve said in confusion as she got out of the jeep and slowly walked towards him but seemed unable to look at him in the eye. “Natasha, where’s Bucky?”

“Steve” Natasha said his name softly, eyes finally flicking up to look at him. “Bucky and his team went MIA two days ago. They finally were able to get in contact this morning and – and they said that they got ambushed and Bucky fell down the side of the mountain they were climbing in order to get to their location. “

Steve was staring at her blankly, his ears ringing as his mouth opened in surprise. Bucky gone? He couldn’t – he promised - .

“But Steve, he pushed two of his unit back up to safety before falling out of reach. He saved lives by sacrificing his own”.

Steve heard none of this as he sunk to the ground onto his knees, mouth opening in a silent scream as tears flooded down his face. And then, finally, after taking a breath, he did scream, a long piercing scream as the red head dropped to her knees in front of him before he blacked out.

 

………………………………..

 

*5 months later*

 

It had been 5 months since Natasha had brought the news that Bucky was MIA (she wouldn’t say KIA because that would have sent Steve into a bigger fit, but she made an excuse that they Bucky was only MIA because they haven’t found a body). Steve had gone through the five stages of grief, starting with denial. For a month, he refused to believe Natasha, closing the shop and sitting in front of the window that looked out over the street, waiting in vain to see a familiar dark brunet walking down the sidewalk with that prideful swagger and strut. Then there was anger, were Steve would scream at Natasha, throwing pillows at walls and smashing dishes into the sink, but that passed quickly (around two weeks), the anger sending him into asthmatic fits that would leave him breathless and lightheaded.

He did try to bargain with Natasha a week after his week of anger, offering all the money that he had saved up to go to the army to fund a search and rescue party, but Natasha shut him down quickly, saying that the Army had already sent a search and rescue party but no body had been found, and since it was snowing heavily in the mountains where they had been, the snow had covered any trace of anyone even being there.

Then there was depression. Steve fell, hard, just lying in bed, ignoring everyone around him. Luckily he had Natasha to bring him out of it, staying with him on his couch and just sitting with him in silence, making him food and drinks, gently prompting him to do things by himself and for himself. This happened for over two months.

And now, after five months, Steve had finally accepted that Bucky was gone, that he wouldn’t be coming back home even after he promised that he would come home, that he would always come home.

Natasha had gone home after Steve had convinced her that he was alright, and after a quarter of an hour persuading her, she agreed, leaving him alone for the first time in five months. Everything seemed emptier without Bucky there to fill the air with laughter and sarcasm, sassing Steve back as Steve sassed him. Steve couldn’t bear to pack up Bucky’s things, leaving his things the way there were when he left. His favourite mug (which Steve had cleaned) left on the kitchen counter ( Steve had screamed at Natasha when she had tried to put it away), Bucky’s haphazard stack of sci-fi novels on the bedside counter, his black leather jacket hanging over the back of the couch (Steve had worn it so many times that Bucky’s natural scent had eventually faded away).

Steve was in the kitchen, his hands automatically making a cup of coffee at 4 pm when there was a knock at the door. Steve looked up in surprise, eyebrows crinkling together in confusion because who would visit him this late in the afternoon?

Steve took his coffee with him as he walked towards the door, cradling it in one hand as he reached the door and extended his hand to grab the doorknob, his long and lither fingers wrapping around the handle, twisting to reveal – Bucky?

The figure in front of him did look like Bucky, with the same coloured hair and grey-blue eyes, the same height, the same bone structure in his sharp jaw, but this Bucky had longer hair, practically brushing his shoulders, and he was covered in dirt, scratches and bruises, his army fatigues hanging loose on a thinner frame, looking like he had been travelling on foot for a very long time….

Steve didn’t realise that his mouth was hanging open as he stared at the figure that looked like Bucky, whose eyes had lit up at the sight of him, the same smile that his Bucky, the Bucky before he was sent away, would send Steve when he was extremely happy or pleased.

“Why do ‘ya look surprised to see me? I’ve come to give you your stupid back”

At these words, Steve lost control of the grip in his hands and the mug slipped through his fingers, falling like it was in slow motion until it shattered into sharp ceramic pieces at his feet, coffee splashing and pooling on the ground.

“Bucky?” Steve whispered, ignoring the broken mug at his feet as tears ran down his cheeks. “Buck, is that really you?”

“I told you I’d always come back, didn’t I?” Bucky joked, but his voice with thick with unshed tears. “God, Stevie-Doll, it’s so good to see you”

And with that, he swept forward and pulled Steve towards his body in a hug, and Steve hugged him back like his life depended on it, ignoring the dirt that clung to Bucky partly like a second skin, and he reached his head up and pressed his lips to Bucky’s, pouring all of the pain, fear, anxiety and love into the kiss, trying to convey to Bucky what he had felt when Bucky had been gone, and Bucky understood.

 

……………………………………

 

After Bucky had gotten into the shower and cleaned off all the dirt (Steve had immediately joined him and helped him to clean up, running his hands all over Bucky’s body with a wash cloth, worshipping Bucky’s body, re-familiarizing himself with Bucky’s new body as well as taking care of him as best as he could – Bucky had let him, standing still as he watched Steve cry silently with a half fond and half agonized smile on his face, occasionally lifting his hand to brush his fingers over Steve’s jaw and through his hair, reassuring him that Bucky was real, that he had come home), he and Steve got into bed, only clad in boxers as Bucky spooned Steve under the warm covers, his nose buried in the short blond hairs at the nape of Steve’s neck with his right arm draped over Steve’s middle, hand splayed across the bottom of his ribs as his left arm became a pillow under Steve’s head, their legs tangling together.

“Natasha told me you were MIA, Buck” Steve whispered, breaking the silence, and the pure anguish in his voice made Bucky let out a soft sigh and press soft kisses across the back of Steve’s neck. “What happened over there? And don’t tell me it’s classified, I’m your god damn husband, I deserve to know when you go missing and come back after five months!”

Steve had twisted around in Bucky’s arms as he spoke so he was now facing Bucky, his face twisted with anger and angry tears gleaming in his eyes.

Bucky hushes him quietly and lowered his gaze to Steve’s lips which were drawn in a straight line, then he moved his hand from Steve’s waist up to his face, cupping his face delicately and brushing his thumb over Steve’s bottom lip, pulling it down then let go so his lips weren’t in a thin line anymore.

“I’ve missed you, Steve” he whispers, and Steve let out a soft sigh, the anger draining out of him at Bucky’s words, at his soft tone.

“I missed you too, James” Bucky closed his eyes as his real name left Steve’s lips, then he felt Steve tilt his head and nuzzle his palm, pressing gentle kisses to his skin. “Please tell me what happened to you. Nat said you saved two of your team while sacrificing yourself”

“She was right” Bucky paused, leaving his eyes closed as he forced himself to relax into the bed. “Our mission was to get to a base that was located at the top of a mountain in a midst of other mountains in the middle of nowhere. It was snowing, and you had to constantly test the ground that you were walking on in-case there was thin ice in front of you, leading straight down a hole and to certain death.”

“Why did you have to go there?”

“You know I can’t tell you that, Stevie” Bucky opened his eyes and saw Steve nodding in understanding. “Anyway, we were halfway up this mountain, and we had walk along a crevasse between two mountain peaks. The path was maybe two, two and half feet wide, and most of it was soft snow, stuff that clung together and hid holes and pieces of the path that might have broken away, so it was slow going. Then we were ambushed. They were on the other mountain peak, shooting at us. One had a rocket launcher, and fired it just ahead of me, making the path crumble under our feet. I started to fall backwards, with one of my guys, Dum-Dum, right behind me. I managed to push him and Gabe into a small recess in the mountain side before I fell.”

Bucky saw that Steve was frozen, blue eyes locked on him, and he smiled weakly, stroking Steve’s cheek tenderly. “Really, it was a soft fall. I mean, I did break my arm because I landed on it funny, but it was a frozen river, and a whole heap of soft snow”

At the mention of a broken bone, Steve sprang up into a sitting position with horror written all over his face as he grabbed Bucky’s right arm and started to examine it, but was still when Bucky gently pulled his right arm out of Steve’s grip and replaced his hands with his left arm, and indicated a spot on his forearm. “It broke right here. It wasn’t too bad, and I had firewood in my pack that I was still wearing, so I put my arm in a splint and set myself to find a way out. I knew my team would have left already; we have rules that if the leader is lost, then the next in command would take charge and get the rest of the team back to safety. Long story short, I was traveling for two months through the mountains, hunting and shooting what I could that I could eat. I think after halfway through the second month I must have blacked out and found myself waking up in some village of natives that lived in the mountains. It sounds crazy, but none of them spoke English apart from one man, another American, a scientist called Banner. He was studying some sort of mystical force or something like that.”

Bucky paused and reached out for Steve, guiding him forward into his lap, cradling him to his chest like a human teddy bear, craving the comfort of skin-to-skin contact. Steve was putty under his hands, pressing his nose and lips to the column of Bucky’s throat, satisfying his own need for skin contact after six months of being apart.

“I stayed with them for a month, recovering, recuperating, and after that, I left them and they sent me with a guide to get me out of the mountains. Took another two weeks to get out of there, and then another two weeks to get to a small town, where there was another English speaker, this tall buff guy with long blond hair, called himself Thor. Stayed another week with him as he was also another soldier, in the Reserves, and he organized my travel to the nearest city that had an American Embassy. That took another two weeks, and when I got there, I showed them my dogtags, my mission orders, and they put me on a plane straight here. They offered to put me in a hotel to get cleaned up but I wanted to see you, I wanted to see you so badly, Stevie”

There were now tears streaming down Bucky’s face and dripping into Steve’s hair. It took a moment for Steve to realise, but when he did, he looked up and one of Bucky’s tears landed on his cheek. He looked shocked for a second, then tracked Bucky’s hand as it came up and wiped his own tear off Steve’s cheek, his own tears dripping down his chin and onto his chest.

“Oh Bucky” Steve used his own thumb to brush away Bucky’s tears then reaching his head up to plant kisses on each of Bucky’s cheeks, then his forehead, his closed eyes, his cupid’s bow then gently kissed him on the lips. “I missed you too. Missed you so much, but now you’re here, you’re here with me and I love you so much”

Steve gently pushed his hand against Bucky’s chest and pushed him down onto his back, then crawled on top of him, legs tangling together as he rests his head on Bucky’s chests, his arms wrapping around his stomach while Bucky’s arms wound around his back and shoulders, keeping him pressed to Bucky.

“You’re home, Bucky Bear” Steve murmurs against the skin of Bucky’s chest, and he can feel the soft chuckle resonate Bucky’s chest at the nickname.

“I’m home”


End file.
